Russia Accuses Election Monitors of Holding Bias

"Russia's chief election manager has accused foreign observers of bias ahead of Sunday's presidential election. "Some international observers come to Russia with ready-made conclusions and opinions which have nothing in common with reality," Vladimir Churov said." They will be the only Western observers to monitor the Russian polls.

"Earlier this month, the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe - the continent's main election watchdog - said it would boycott the polls because of Moscow-imposed restrictions." Lately, the OSCE and Russia have been having disputes the "size and scope of the observers' mission." In turn, "Russia's foreign ministry has called the monitors' decision "unacceptable"."

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Although Medvedev is an almost gaurunteed to be the succesor of Putin, claims that the elections were influenced by forces to make the results untrue could result in violent civil strife and protests. This could also lead to international powers to challalenge Medvedev's right to rule.

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OSCE to Sabotage Russia's Presidential Election

A top Russian diplomat stated that OSCE sabotaged Moscow’s suggestions on the norms to monitor presidential elections in Russia. The official added that the Russian administration was not going to change the format of the international monitoring of March 2 elections in the Russian Federation, Interfax reports.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe asked Russia’s Central Election Committee to revise the number of observers and the time of their arrival in Moscow. The official invitation from the committee said that observers were allowed to come to Russia from February 28. The OSCE believes that it would be too late.

“The OSCE continues to openly sabotage our suggestion on collective norms of election monitoring,” the director of the European Department for Cooperation of the Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry, Sergei Ryabkov stated Friday. “We fulfill our obligations, but we are not going to over-fulfill them,” he added.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry believes that the mission of OSCE’s observers will arrive on February 28 to observe the presidential elections in Russia.

“The OSCE tries to excite doubts regarding Russia’s readiness to fulfill its obligations in the field of democratic and transparent elections,” Ryabkov said.

Ryabkov said the OSCE "must chose: whether to join a constructive and clear movement to single election monitoring standards, or continue its political games, which we do not accept."

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This is important because it concerns the upcoming elections that are on everyone's mind. The OSCE could have an impact on this years elections. The OSCE is the world's largest regional security organization whose 56 participating States span the geographical area from Vancover to Vladivostok.